This blog contains published items and day to day events written by Julia Morton-Marr on IHTEC's International School Peace Gardens program. It has been seen as a best practice for Sustainable and Peace Education around the Earth. Ideas for teachers include lesson plans K - 12 and other resources.

H. Burkhardt who has kindly consented for us to quote from his ‘General Science Theory’ Based on Substance Accounting for Systems”. Ryerson Polytecnic University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 1995, pp.12.

1. Some of these ideas were first developed for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Exhibition on Nuclear Weapons at Metro Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1997,for the United Nations Association of Canada.

2. The aim of this booklet is to focus on positive outcomes towards building a culture of peace. Its focus mainly for upper elementary and secondary schools. It could be used as part of World Issues, Science, Art, Music, and Media curriculum.

3. Hope and encouragement for the future of young people, must include their understanding that there are many alternatives available for solving problems at all levels, that don’t include war.

4. Research on Nuclear Weapons use during Hiroshima & Nagasaki, the Nuclear Weapons Convention draft document, is required by teachers, before using these ideas for peace education. For a sustainable world, we must have peace, and this includes the removal of weapons of mass destruction.(H. Burkhardt)

5. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs had only 1% power of current Nuclear Bombs in 2009. There are 13,000 Nuclear Weapons on planet earth on alert, each one is more then 100 times stronger than the ‘Little Boy’ used on Hiroshima. You may also like to consider the affects of nuclear weapons on the environment, society and the individual.

6. Your school is invited to participate in the “International School Peace Gardens (ISPG) program, and have it dedicated by a member of the International Holistic Tourism Education Centre - IHTEC’s team. Please register before you begin on http://www.ihtec.org/index.php?id=124 Email: ihtec@3web.com

7. IHTEC’s focus is on positive curriculum for schools that creates peace education, planetary regeneration through ‘Tourism as a vital force for peace’ concepts, using peace parks and peace gardens.Official websites for ISPG is: http://www.ihtec.org and http://ispg.blogspot.com

8. This booklet is dedicated to Joseph Rotblat, founder of Pugwash, who was the only scientist to leave the Manhatten Project on ethical grounds.

The resource team have tried to use the following “Elements of Learning” within the package development. You may like to consider these as you organize, link and expand your ideas or the ideas developed within this booklet.

Within conflict resolution we also encourage you to consider how young people can use these concepts, based on studies of language and rhetoric, Aristotle came up with nine categories of thinking: these eight attributes are a tool for analyzing problems to help students to remember relevant aspects.
∙ place
∙ position
∙ time
∙ quality
∙ quantity
∙ state
∙ action
∙ and their relationships.
All categories are used in acquiring and maintaining knowledge.

Activity 1: Part A - explore:
1. Explore war drawings by Japanese artist Hibakusha. Discuss the difference in content between these drawings and the photographs of the Hiroshima Peace Park website. http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html

2. Take a virtual tour of the Canadian and Australian War Museums. Look at the art. Choose three pieces using different artistic tools. Eg: oils, water colour, sculpture. What is unique to each medium? Which medium gives you the strongest personal or immediate impact? Why? http://www.awm.gov.au/virtualtour/index.asp

3. Was it fair to use animals for warfare? Draw animals that were used in war: http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/animals/

4. There are a number of Canadian artists, including Varley and Lismer of the Group of Seven, who travelled to countries ravaged by war, painting and drawing images they saw. Have the students study the work of some of these artists. Many of their works are on display in public art galleries such as the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and Art Gallery of Ontario. Compare them to their non-war art. Does the artist change style when painting or drawing images of war? Do they demonstrate a totally different concern or focus in their art? http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/index_e.aspx?DetailID=19926

Part B - create
5. Use two art media listed below. Communicate what life is like in your neighbourhood. What would be lost? Use video, photographs and / or drawings. What were you able to say in one medium that was not possible in another? Upload them as a .jpeg digital image to www.flickr.com or www.youtube.com or www.voicethread.com . Create an audio podcast to go with your images. These links can also be added to your blog.

Activity 2: part A - explore
6. For centuries, artists have depicted the effects of war, either with paint, pencil, camera, video camera, music, dance, prose or poetry. Choose one artist, from any time period, in each of the categories listed and describe the unique contribution they have made to our understanding of the impact of war. The Canadian War Museum has art collections online. War Museum

visual art (painting, drawing, photographs)
film/video (movies, t.v.)
writing (books, poetry)
music
Discuss how the arts can be a messenger for peace.

Part B - create
7. If you were to send a visual image to the leaders of a country or region at war to inspire them to initiate a peace process, what image would you create? What medium would you use and which country or region would you choose to send this? Create a the image individually or as a group project.

Activity 3: part A - explore
8. The crane, peace dove, “V” sign are symbols of peace. Explain and compare how the different origins came about. What other symbols of peace are you aware of?

part B - create
9. Create new visual symbols for world peace that you believe would be understood by:
1. Students 2. Young adults 3. Adults (Don’t use any existing images)

10. Understanding how damaging nuclear weapons are, paint or draw how you feel, using some of the following techniques and paint types.
a. Paint first using primary colours, then only secondary colours?
b. Find natural colour sources grown in or on the earth.
c. Find plants and soil in your environment that give colours and use them for painting or dyeing materials.
d. Ask First Nations, and other indigenous people, that you may know, what substances and techniques they use for art and use these tools.
e. Use the variety of techniques discovered, to paint ‘yourself’ visiting people who have experienced war in another culture.

11. Find cultural patterns from Japan. Draw a thumbnail sketch of the pattern and use it in a design suitable for clothing fabric. Use designs that show the Japanese culture.

Peace means cooperation and understanding; not only amongst one another, but also with the surrounding environment. By having peace with the environment, means taking care of it, and not abusing it.

Peace means caring for all humanity and every living thing on the planet, including our environment, by supporting all life.

Peace and the environment can no longer be separated. We must talk about peace and the environment together and the many effects of one on the other.

Peace involves working with the Earth Charter to mend and sustain planet earth where we live.

PEACE IN OURSELVES

Peace means to become one with yourself spiritually. You have to understand your beliefs and values.

Peace means to think and speak positively, reversing our negative and hurtful words by making them positive.

Peace is calmness with others, and silence where words are not required and ideas are simply understood.

For peace, people should forget about one’s small differences.

Peace is safety, no fear in people’s hearts.

Peace means to be joyful.

PEACE IN OUR SCHOOLS

The message of peace should be spread to children starting at a very young age, because in Year 1 & 2, that’s when the teasing and all of the other negative things start.

Peace acknowledges that we are all the same and if we concentrate more on the similarities rather than the differences, there will be a healthy, peaceful environment to learn in.

Ensure that peace education is circulated throughout my classroom by posting peace messages.

Every student should know how to react in situations where bullying occurs, if it should ever arise.

Peace to me means no fights, no robberies and no bullying.

Making peace posters, and placing them all over the school, to give the message of peace.

We should have a peace corner in each classroom.

In schools I would help in cooperating with others and this would help avoid all of us from starting conflicts.

PEACE IN OUR COMMUNITY

Peace means no fighting with other citizens, rather helping one another and making sure everyone is safe.

Use peace gossip in a positive way to teach a person some of my peace knowledge, and ask them to pass it on.

Peace means being kind to all other people (species), no matter what religion or culture they are from.

PEACE IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY

Peace is not only something that we think of when a war is happening. Peace means love. It makes us get together and get to know others. Peace is friendship and sharing.

Peace is when people have consideration for other people as human beings. Peace is when people co-exist without any form of hatred for each other, looking out for each other, and treating people the way they would want others to treat them.
DRAMA/DANCE

1. Depict human movement from the art from the war museum. Create three ‘tableaux’ in preparation for a dance. Hold each tableaux for 30 seconds. Perform them. Count Hold ....., Move Hold....., Move Hold.........Stop

2. Repeat these three tableaux, linking them together with 5 different movements, one at the beginning, two in the middle connecting the tableaux’s and one to finish. You now have the beginning of a dance. Count as you move and hold the tableaux. Perform the tableaux for the school community and/or the wider community as an outcome of your visit to the exhibit.

3. Use your poetry and create a dance that shows your understanding of war and peace. Use multicultural and intercultural costume, movements and strong and gentle dynamics. Video the result. Edit it and then upload it to www.youtube.com

MUSIC

1. Find examples of peace related songs and poems, that speak to and focus on peace related issues and concerns.

2. Research their meanings, and if possible, research why and when the song was written.
3. In your music group students could perform some of the songs they might find.

4. Find a musical composition that could reflect the impact of war on: Use RAP to perform the results.
a. human and political rights.
b. global economics and poverty.
c. environment.

SCIENCE

1. Keep a record of some of the substances (Aristotle) and species in your local environment or school peace garden. Record them four times a year, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and see if they increase or decrease in quality and quantity. Discuss what happens during a war and how fast nature might regenerate itself?

2. In Chemistry, understand the nature of naturally volatile substances.

3. Study the effects and time required for regeneration of the land after the dropping of a bomb. Note that a similar effect occurs with volcanoes such as Mt. St. Helens in Washington, USA.

1. Have students look through newspapers, both local and national (and international if they have the inclination), for stories of local peacewomen and peacemen. They can cut out and pin each one to a board in the classroom or hallway. The title card could be something like: PeaceWomen or Peace Men. The students could create nifty names themselves.

2. Hold the Exhibition of the 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe in your school. Find one of these women to speak to you either in your country, province, state or city. Invite your parents and their community to visit. www.1000peacewomen.org

1. Have students study television for a week. Ask students what message is being sent to youth. Ask students to identify their biases and then find something on television and/or radio and or in the print media, that supports their point of view.

3. Have students write an advertisement for peace. Create concepts you wish to deliver and then develop a ‘campaign for peace’. Students should work in groups of about 4 or 5 for this task, as it can take many different talents to create advertising work. The end product should be a peace poster or an internet message.

4. If the students wanted to reach the most people with their peace message, where would they put their ads/posters? Don’t limit the students vision of peace. They could “sell” the idea of peace to an environmental group; an animal rights group; a financial group or academic group. Use current technology. Create 2 cell phone images.

5. Did they identify any peaceful solutions or attempts to arrive at them in the media.

THE ROLE OF PEACE PARKS AND GARDENS

How the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Parks are linked to the Toronto Peace Garden.

1. Locate the Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan, and learn about the Peace Bell which tolls for those who died. Use the internet for your research.

2. The Peace Flame from Hiroshima was brought to Toronto, Ontario, Canada and placed in the Toronto Peace Garden during Toronto’s Sesquicentennial Year on September 4, 1984. His Holiness, Pope John Paul II kindled the eternal flame with an ember from Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima and poured the water from Nagasaki into the pool. On October 2, 1984, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the Garden as a lasting expression of Toronto’s commitment to peace.

3. During the “Canada 125" in 1992, the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism - IIPT, invited Canadian Municipalities to dedicate peace grove in their main municipal park. Over 400 peace groves were planted during “Peace Parks Across Canada”. These were linked to the Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Do you know where the one is in your Municipality?

4. Bring articles from home, and build your individual peace garden in a shoe box. Use a layer of soil. (three dimensional)

5. Next build a class peace garden model on a large board.

6. Plant a school Peace Park, Peace Garden or Peace Grove and hold a dedication ceremony. This is to be outdoors.

7. Some schools have created a ‘peace foyer’ for when people arrive at the school. This includes an indoor plant as a peace tree, and a friendship bench.

8. Contact your Municipal Parks Director and link your school peace garden to their data base of environmental and peace gardens programs. The aim is to promote cities, towns, community groups and schools working together.

9. Dedicate a “Bench of Dreams” or “Friendship Bench” as a place for resolving conflicts peacefully. Sit on your ‘Dream Bench’ and write ideas that will stimulate action for Earth Day. Create a book of ideas (Robert Muller) that will help improve the planet in the future, one for each day. From this list of ideas, take one suggestion and find practical ways to achieve a positive outcome. Keep a record of your progress.

10. Pin your class ideas on a “Peace Notice Board” in your peace garden. E-mail them to your local government. Ask them what you can do to help implement them .

11. Write stories about the process, develop a “Peace Garden News” to upload on your website. Connect your website to the International School Peace Gardens blog: http://ispg.blogspot.com and join http://ihtec-ispg.ning.com

12. Sing songs and say poems, perform the dances that you have written from works of art, in your peace garden.

13. Display your art in a School Art Show.

PEACE GARDEN SUMMARY PROCESS
IDEAS FOR TEACHERS IN BUILDING AND SUSTAINING A PEACE GARDEN

1. Plan and Select a suitable site for your Peace Garden or Peace Tree. Contact your local Board of Education before you plan, for information on site management. Check with the grounds management to ensure you are clear of pipes and wires underground. Contact local City Parks for their help.

2. Plant your peace garden supporting local migrating species. Create a land laboratory and learn about the plants and their Eco-systems. Use original seeds for vegetables. Make a list of all the plants and their uses. The peace garden is 'a place for peace', symbolic of our hope for the future of World Peace and a Sustainable environment, as a living legacy to UNESCO's 'A Culture of Peace' and for the 'Decade of Education for Sustainable Development' for the present and the future!

3. Register your involvement in the International School Peace Gardens Programs http://www.ihtec.org/index.php?id=124 Follow the links and fill in the form. This form comes directly to IHTEC.

4. Meet with Julia Morton-Marr (on line or in person – depending on your location) as a staff to discuss how to incorporate the curriculum. Following are some ideas:

a. Each child creates his/her idea of peace – pictures, posters, dioramas, mobiles, etc. Display their work around the school. This is a whole school project, which is ongoing over many years.

5. Incorporate Peace Values for the Classroom (see Appendix 4) as an integrated part daily routine in the class
a. Share space
b. Share materials
c. Use only words that contribute to harmony
d. Share insights and ideas
e. Respect viewpoints of others
f. Ask for discussion when uncertainties occur

6. Each class walks the grounds to consider what location to use for a peace garden. (within Board of Education limitations). Children each design a garden (incorporating math, science, art). From these designs each class proposes a single design before developing a class model. All the class designs are posted and the best of each is incorporated into the final school design for the garden.

7. Draw up a plan for implementation. Start small and build/grow. Note: Your garden minimally will include two friendship benches and one peace or sacred tree, peace signs, students sculptures and a path of peace, on which to dance, sing and perform.

8. Brainstorm ideas with students, staff and parents with respect to other sustainability ideas, such as solar energy, conservation of water and transportation.

9. Students create slide shows of their plan for fund-raising.

10. Dedicate your Peace Garden, or Peace Tree with a suitable ceremony on any suitable day, or as part of 'United Nations Day' in October or on 'World Environment Day' in June. Include students poetry, prose, song, dances and sculptures. Include / invite the mayor, local MPs and MPPs, and local First Nations (eg: peace pipe ceremony or stories and dance depicting peace).

11. Re-dedicate your Peace Garden annually or Peace Tree to ensure that new staff and students understand the importance of the garden and how it focuses on Global Commons issues and the levels of sustainability:
a. Economic
b. Social
c. Environment and Earth Charter
d. Impact = P x A x T. (Paul Ehrlich & John Holdren 1970)
i. P – Population
ii. A – Affluence / Poverty
iii. T – Technology 12. Use the ISPG logo on all your document and send copies to IHTEC.

13. Create a booklet of the history of your Peace Garden. Communicate via you own Peace Garden News sending it to your local newspaper, neighbourhood schools, parents, government members, churches and your schools neighbours. This will help with donations from your local community.

14. Create a Blog. www.blogger.com Create and link in audio podcasts and youtube video to share your stories, ideas and progress. Send IHTEC your Blog url so that we can create a link to http://ispg.blogspot.com

a. Include the following:
i. Photos of the process from the beginning. Label them and include dates.
ii. A showcase of the children's work and community involvement.
iii. The effect of the garden on behaviour in the school and academic results.
iv. The process of fundraising and the final cost.

15. Water Dedication: Put Nature First in all you do, especially where water use is concerned. The ‘Water Dedication’ was developed to foster discussion by teachers with their students. You are ask to read, discuss then dedicate yourself in your peace garden to preserving water where you live.

WATER DEDICATION

Canadian Pugwash and Science for Peace Expert Roundtable on Water, Nov. 2008

I ..........................................................................................................................................................
from ................................................................................................................. dedicate myself as a
trustworthy person to protecting freshwater wherever I am in the world. I understand that I am 80% water, that water is sacred for the web of life in this time of climate change, which is heating the planet. I will endeavour to:
1. Understand that where climate change is increasing the rate of evaporation there will be more rain. Where world precipitation is decreasing, there will be less rain and less fresh water.
2. Keep the planet cool with all my actions.
3. Reduce my water footprint, as Nature needs it to prime the pump for the hydrological cycle.
4. Keep water where it is on planet earth returning water to water courses.
5. Protect rivers and streams from pollution.
6. Build rain water tanks to collect water for the garden and household needs. Plant lawn cover and garden species that can grow with no or only minimal water other than rain water.
7. Wash my car with a bucket, not a hose. Wait until the next rainstorm -- this saves more water.
8. Drink tap water wherever it is safe. Boil water otherwise.
9. Remove water in plastic bottles (8 & 9 messages are brought to you by David Suzuki and the Canadian Federation of Municipalities)
10. Wash dishes by hand where possible, with the plug in the sink. Run the dishwasher only when fully loaded, after 8 pm.
11. Turn off the tap when brushing my teeth; use a low-flush toilet or reduce flushes; take a 3 minute shower.
12. Conserve electricity as it takes water to generate your power and power to pump water to my tap. Encourage my family, school & community to share their water bills to see how much we can reduce together.
13. Share water with all species.
14. Work with your politicians.

Instructions: The “Water Dedication” is a great example of action on sustainability for Earth Day, April 22, 2009. Individuals, teachers can use it for teaching, religious groups, students and their communities can distribute, read, sign, keep and frame the dedication, as they dedicate themselves in their peace garden to water conservation. Other water documents are available on http://www.ihtec.org/index.php?id=214
IHTEC AWARD CERTIFICATE

Each school will receive one award certificate for participating in the International School Peace Gardens program. Please post a summary of what you have achieved to: International School Peace Gardens, 3343 Masthead Crescent, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. L5L 1G9.

Many organizations have been working on the removal of nuclear weapons for many years. Here is what would happen if your city was hit by a nuclear bomb, from ‘The Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. http://www.web.net/~cnanw/facts.htm

NOW: There is to be a meeting of 100 countries of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference at the United Nations on May 4 - 15, 2009. It is hoped that the draft Nuclear Weapons Convention will be presented and accepted at this meeting. The draft treaty has been created by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - ICAN Website: www.icanw.org http://www.icanw.org/nuclear-weapons-convention

What would it do?

The NWC would prohibit the development, testing, production, stockpiling, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as the production of fissile material suitable for making them (either highly enriched uranium or separated plutonium). It would require all nuclear-armed countries to destroy their nuclear weapons in stages (see below), the last stage being to place all fissile material under international control to prevent nuclear weapons every being made again.

How would it happen?

1. Take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert
2. Remove nuclear weapons from deployment
3. Remove the warheads from their delivery vehicles
4. Disable the warheads by removing the explosive ‘pits’.
5. Place the fissile material under United Nations control.